Established in 2011, SBW is a proudly Australian design house, specialising in producing furniture that marries the functional utilitarian aspect with visually captivating form. This blend of design elements has seen SBW service the commercial, hospitality and residential sectors worldwide, with adaptable furniture pieces that can be configured into existing spaces, or leveraged as standalone statement pieces. SBW offers the option of customisation, working closely with clients to accommodate needs of fabrication, texture and dimension.
Founders Laelie Berzon and Lisa Vincitorio drew upon their respective award-winning backgrounds in Industrial Design and Visual Arts when founding SBW, and now over a decade on, continue to hone their astute design approach to bring locally designed and manufactured furniture to the world
ARTHURS CREEK, 2018
Dimensions: 240 x 150 cm
Oil, acrylic and soft pastel on canvas
Photography: Emily Bartlett Photography
Laelie Berzon is a Visual Artist, living and working in Melbourne, Australia.
Berzon paints to understand her life as she’s living it, piece by piece, blending the dramatic influences of her Eastern European heritage with her modern perspectives to create a visual and emotional unfolding through the textural interchange of painting, collage and mixed media.
Influenced by childhood recollections of the portraits and illustrations of her Latvian Grandfather and the paintings, murals and sculpture collected by her parents, Berzon turns to painting as both a release and a healing platform; expressing her inner thoughts and emotions, epiphanies, reflections, complexities of human culture, speculations and imaginings through abstract visual language.
Bringing artistic insights to the practicality of everyday items, Berzon is the Co-founder of furniture brand Something Beginning With (SBW), a collaboration with renowned industrial designer Lisa Vincitorio. Where painting allows Berzon to draw upon her inner feelings, focusing on the Something Beginning With (SBW) furniture range essentially balances her creative scales by harnessing her design skills and attention to detail. The SBW collection is visually captivating and balanced, designed and made in Melbourne, Australia and tailored towards the commercial, residential and hospitality sectors. We offer clients the flexibility to customise products to their specific needs, and the benefit of local manufacture means a shorter lead-time.
Widely travelled, Laelie Berzon draws inspiration from a mosaic of rich and diverse influences and paints with a unique voice. Her emergent body of work is compelling, candid and intriguing.
Christian Dior Haute Couture SS 2008, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier
Comme Des Garçons by Rei Kawakubo
Grace Coddington's shoot from September Vogue 2007
Self-Portrait by Egon Schiele
Kneeling Girl in Orange-Red Dress by Egon Schiele
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life: Sophia Loren
Tilda Swinton: Stranger than Paradise for W Magazine 2013, photographed by Tim Walker
Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, Comme Des Garçons
Jeff Koons, Fondation Beyeler Basel video opening
Joel Robison Photography
As You Are by Laelie Berzon
Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses by Laelie Berzon
Tilda Swinton as David Bowie by Craig McDean for Vogue Italia, February 2003
Céline Spring 2014
Masterpieces from the Hermitage at NGV, photo by Laelie Berzon
Prue Stent Photography
MIUNIKU AW 14
Grace Jones
Thick Skin by Laelie Berzon
Kendall Jenner for Fendi Fall 2015 Ad Campaign
Bacchus paintings 2005 by Cy Twombly, Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Laelie Berzon
Black & white detail shot by Laelie Berzon 2004
Raf Simons for Christian Dior's AW 2012 Couture show
Rot by Thomas Lohr for Vogue Germany May 2015, Comme Des Garçons Spring Summer 2015
Establishment studios
Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker for W Magazine
Untitled 2008, Oil stick & charcoal on paper by Alex Asher Daniel
Door to the River 1960 by Willem De Kooning, Whitney Museum of American Art, photo by Laelie Berzon
Vanessa Paradis for French Vogue
Jana Wirth by Michael Donovan for Vision
Catherine Baba
The Face, Kate Moss by Mario Testino
Studio shot by Laelie Berzon
Joan Miró, Bird Woken by the Cry of the Azure Flying Away Across the Breathing Plain 1968, Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Laelie Berzon
Willem De Kooning: A Way of Life by Judith Zilczer
Björk by Alasdair McLellan for The Gentlewoman SS 2015
The Triumphs of a Heart, Bjork Mid-Career Retrospective
Planet Tilda: Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker for W, August 2011
Egon Schiele, Seated Female Nude with Raised Arm (Gertrude Schiele), 1910
Beautiful Palenquera, Santo Domingo, Cartagena
Heidi Lerkenfeldt Interiors
Anna Piaggi
Alice, Porcelain tea-ware by Rachel Boxnboim Design, Tel-Aviv
30 x 30cm
Oil, acrylic and soft pastel on canvas
153 x 137 cm
Oil, acrylic and soft pastel on linen
Delighted to see 'Elastic Heart' featured in this beautifully modernized double-fronted Victorian House, designed by the very talented Matt Gibson Architecture + Design in the November issue of Belle Magazine.
